When I woke up, there was chaos in front of my eyes.
No, no... wait, where is this
Memories gradually emerged, and the last sounds in my ears were people yelling in fear, "Nine Tails is coming" or something.
By the way, sacrifice!
Sacrifice did not develop in the intended direction. But that is already Qingqiu Kingdom's last trump card, if all the sacrifices are destroyed... that is to say.
already…
I opened my eyes, and the moisture in the air got into my nasal cavity like a snake, making people very uncomfortable. It was so dark that it was almost impossible to see anything. I can only blindly rely on intuition, groping for things nearby.
Dry grass and stones, and moist soil. I should be in the depths of a cave.
The first thought that came to my mind was to escape as soon as possible. I didn't even think about it, so I quickly stood up from the ground, but unexpectedly, I tripped over the long skirt on my body and fell to the ground.
The pain in every part of my body was clamoring, and I realized that I didn't know when my body was covered with cuts and bruises, and there was a sore pain. But there was no time to check the wound at this time, I got up from the ground again in a panic, rolled up the hem of my skirt indiscriminately, and ran towards the only place where a ray of light penetrated, that must be the exit of the cave.
Hurry up and get out!
The cave is deep and dark. I don't know how many times I fell and bruised many places, but finally, the ray of light got closer and closer to me until it turned into dazzling sunlight. I was ecstatic in my heart and finally escaped out!
As long as you can escape, there must be hope!
However, just as I was about to escape from the entrance of the cave, suddenly, a huge black shadow blocked all the sunlight from the entrance of the cave.
"Do you want to run away alone? What a disobedient little girl." A gloomy voice sounded, it was the voice of a beast enough to make everyone terrified.
The nine-tailed fox stood in front of me, smiling slightly, showing sharp canine teeth.
—————
I suddenly woke up from the dream, my whole body was soaked in sweat, the feeling of fear was like an invisible hand tightly grasping my heart, and even my breathing stopped.
I sat on the bed and adjusted my breathing for a long time before returning to reality from the dream. I glanced at my phone, it was only half past four in the morning. Several of my other roommates were sleeping soundly, and Zhou Lang was snoring loudly. I never thought that one day the snoring of my roommate could bring me a sense of peace of mind.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead with a paper towel, and still felt lingering fears when I thought of the dream just now.
Come to think of it, I've had this dream about this sacrificial girl several times. The feeling I felt the first few times was not so strong, and it felt no different from the dreams I had through spiritual vision before. So I didn't pay too much attention to it.
But as time went on, this dream felt more and more wrong to me. In the dream, the girl I was from the first perspective seemed to be a princess of a certain country, and in this dream, I was sure that she was the princess of Qingqiu.
Qingqiu country, that is, the country that was destroyed by Wen Jiubai in the legend. It is also the hometown of Taoist Ling Xiao, the mastermind behind the scenes.
The princess in the dream seems to be willing to become a sacrifice in order to prevent the nine-tailed fox from destroying their country. But in this dream, it was obvious that Nine-Tailed Fox didn't buy it. Instead of buying it, he took the princess into custody.
As the dream plot progressed, it became easier for me to empathize with the princess' emotions. Several times in the dream, I forgot my identity as "Gu Yu", and thought that I was the young princess who was going to take on the mission of offering sacrifices.
This feeling is really weird. In the spiritual events I encountered in the past, no matter how empathetic I felt, I was very clear in my heart that they were just other people's feelings, not my own. But this time I will be so scared that I will be covered in sweat.
Thinking of the black shadow of the huge nine-tailed fox, I still have lingering fears in my heart. Even if I know that the nine-tailed fox is actually the Wen Jiubai I am familiar with now, but even if I think so, the fear in my heart will not be alleviated in the slightest. I finally understood why Zhuxuan would tell me solemnly, don't underestimate Wen Jiubai.
It is indeed an ancient evil beast.
But then again... Who is this girl in the dream? I remembered that in the dream of traveling through the future caused by the Nian Beast, I once saw an altar in the gap in the void. There are murals and words engraved on the altar, which also mentioned the princess of Qingqiu Kingdom. I didn't pay much attention at the time, but now that I think about it, I can't wait to go back to that dream and see the murals clearly.
At that time Wen Jiubai said that the altar was his memory. But in reality Wen Jiubai never mentioned the matter of that girl to me, even if he explained clearly about Ling Xiao and how he destroyed Qingqiu country in the first place. I thought he had confessed enough to me, until now I realized he never told me anything about this princess.
Zhu Xuan's words rang in my ears again.
— You have to know that Wen Jiubai doesn't tell the truth in every word.
…
It was another sunny day in the morning. For Yancheng, a small town in the south, consecutive sunny days are rare.
"Go find Liang Kaifeng." I said with certainty.
"Wait... Wen Jiubai is next?" Su Xiaoyun looked at me in surprise, "He's back?"
I shook my head, "No. He's still outside and has encountered some trouble. I didn't tell him about Liang Kaifeng."
"Then why do you..."
"I want to accept his commission. Before Wen Jiubai left, he said that I could temporarily recruit his identity to investigate the incident while he was away. I want to find out what happened to Liang Kaifeng's family."
"Really? Have you figured it out?" Shi Yitong also looked at me disapprovingly, "I think even if we help him out of kindness, that guy Liang Kaifeng might not appreciate it. And that guy surnamed Wen is now If we're not here, with just a few of us, even if we find out what happened to his father, we won't be able to solve it, right? Maybe... we'll be involved in it."
"I know, I'm sorry." I apologized to my two good friends, "It's not 'us'."
"What?" Shi Yitong didn't respond.
"It's not 'us', Shi Yitong, it's me." I sighed, and said this carefully, "I... didn't intend to let the two of you go with me."
"What?" Su Xiaoyun and Shi Yitong asked in unison.
"What do you mean?" Su Xiaoyun asked, "You want to investigate Liang Kaifeng's matter alone? How is that possible, let alone you!"
"That's to say, if you go alone, it's the same as going to the tiger's mouth? You don't even know what his father has messed with!"
"I know, I know!" Facing Shi Yitong and Su Xiaoyun's fierce rebuttals, I had to raise my voice to make them calm down and listen to me, "But this time I have made up my mind, I don't want you two Intervene. To be honest, the matter of Liang Kaifeng's family may have something to do with Wen Jiubai, so this time I want to investigate alone. Don't worry about me, I still have Wen Jiubai's contact information, and I'm not a gangster like you think A weak scholar with no strength to restrain a chicken. I am a man of sound mind and don't always need your protection. And I don't want you two to be in danger because of me."
"Stop joking, can we just watch you risk yourself?" Su Xiaoyun's tone was very strong, "Impossible. If you want to help Liang Kaifeng, we can find a way to contact other experts in this field. Instead of…”
"But I've really made up my mind." I said helplessly, "I didn't discuss it with you this time, I just came to inform you. I know you two care about me, but can you just trust me this time? Trust me I, I have a way, I won't let myself die so casually."
"What unlucky words are you talking about!" Shi Yitong said angrily, "You are Gu Yu, how could you die?"
"That's right?" I caught Shi Yitong's words and laughed, "Look, you said that yourself. Then it's settled, you two don't follow, or I will get angry."
"Hey, Gu Yu!"
"Gu Yu!"
I skipped the afternoon class and asked the teacher about Liang Kaifeng's address. Sure enough, as I thought, Liang Kaifeng didn't go to class either. But when I took a taxi and came to Liang Kaifeng's outrageously large villa, I found another uninvited guest standing at the door of his house.
"Bamboo Pavilion?"
Zhu Xuan was taken aback. I had never seen him frightened before, so I couldn't help laughing out loud.
"Gu Yu! What are you doing here?" Zhu Xuan stared at me with big eyes in disbelief.
"Me? I should be the one asking you this question, right?" I deliberately teased him, "I remember someone swearing at that time that he was not interested in this matter at all, and he didn't want to go into troubled water again It's over."
"Can't I change my mind?" Zhu Xuan frowned and looked at me, "What about you? I remember you also said something like 'Sorry, I can't help you'. What's the situation now? Is Wen Jiubai back?"
"No, it's actually the opposite." I hesitated, but still said, "Wen Jiubai won't be able to come back for a while. He encountered a little trouble in the mountains in the suburbs and was trapped in a cave."
Zhu Xuan frowned, "What? Then why didn't you tell me? I can save him, or—"
"I don't think this is a good idea." I interrupted him with a sigh, "Wen Jiubai obviously doesn't trust you, and doesn't want to owe you favors. Most importantly, Wen Jiubai thinks that Yu Ruyi is near my school. He I think Ling Xiao might take this opportunity to sneak in, so I must never leave the vicinity of the school."